Instruments of American Excellence

Finding the First Farmers  with Kentucky Archaeological Survey staff and guest curators: Dr. David Pollack, and Dr. A. Gwynn Henderson.Panelists from the Kentucky Archaeological Survey (KAS) will discuss the diverse nature of indigenous farm life in the Barren River drainage of south-central Kentucky during the Mississippian era. Exploring recent archaeological finds, the team will expand on the First Farmers of the Barren River Valley exhibition at the Kentucky Museum to address misconceptions on indigenous peoples’ identity, technology, settlement patterns, foodways, and trade routes to reveal the complex societies present before Europeans arrived in what is now North America. They will also explore the similarities between indigenous farmers and Kentucky farm families of the late nineteenth to early twenty-first centuries.

Location: Kentucky Museum